Former Steamboat Springs High School teacher sentenced to jail

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — A former Steamboat Springs High School industrial arts teacher was sentenced Thursday to four years of probation and one year in Routt County Jail.

As part of a plea deal, Dustin “Dusty” Dike in June pleaded guilty to felony theft and misdemeanor first-degree criminal tampering.

Dike was first arrested June 16, 2016, after police suspected him of stealing a $75,000 backhoe.

Steamboat police then discovered evidence that led them to believe Dike had committed other crimes. Police believe Dike burglarized a ski shop in Gondola Square as well as a business on 13th Street, which reported $7,000 worth of items had been stolen.

Dike still has a case pending related to a stolen motorcycle.

Dike’s attorney Eric Fenster told Judge Shelley Hill that Dike’s compulsive behavior was caused by the cocktail of medications that Dike is taking for Parkinson’s disease, which Dike has had for nine years.

“He acts like an addict,” Fenster. “There is a chemical component to that behavior.”